On our minds

Martin Schmalzried, a Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE), explores the power and control of private companies over internet access and usage. His piece follows a special workshop¹ convened by the Media Policy Project and Parenting for a Digital Future on ‘Families and “screen-time”: challenges of ...more

Julia Fossi explores the diverse interests of children and the rich lives they lead online. She argues that to reflect the modern experiences of children, steps must now be taken to equally protect them online and offline. Julia is Acting Head of Child Safety Online at the NSPCC, where she is responsible for all policy ...more

Data protection reform is set to take place throughout the European Union when the General Data Protection Regulation becomes law in May 2018. Nathan Fisk, Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity Education at the University of South Florida, discusses questions around the age of consent for data collection and processing, and its implications ...more

To discuss the issues arising from the General Data Protection Regulation’s provision that under 16 year-olds will need parental consent before accessing social media or other online services, the LSE’s Media Policy Project, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety’s Evidence Group, the Centre for Digital Democracy and the School ...more

Wendy M. Grossman provides a non-lawyer’s first stab at thinking though what the UK can and cannot change if and when the government pulls the trigger to begin exit negotiations from the EU. She discusses how children may grow up in a vastly different national landscape than the one we ...more

Sonia Livingstone and Mariya Stoilova share key insights from the Global Kids Online Synthesis Report, produced by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and the LSE. The Global Kids Online project launched today at the Children’s Lives in the Digital Age seminar held at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, and aims to ...more

Alicia Blum-Ross discusses how the newly revised ‘screen time’ recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) are actively trying to address the diversity of parents, but the conversation around 'screen time' still lacks counterbalance to the negative messages parents often receive about digital media. She argues that research findings from the Parenting for a ...more

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has just revised its stance on screen time. Sonia Livingstone takes a closer look at the new recommendations and their evidence base. She argues that while the new guidelines fit better with the current circumstances of family lives, the AAP faces a dilemma: there isn’t yet a robust body of research ...more

Has ‘digital parenting’ simply become another dimension of parenting, as ‘traditional’ parenting spills over into the ‘online’ world, with social skills, sexuality education, a healthy balance in children’s activities, social and emotional learning, and values such as respect all be transposed to online settings? Martin Schmalzried, a Senior Policy and ...more

Most children love YouTube, but what do they love about it? Sonia Livingstone unpacks the individual stories behind the shared fascination. Together with Julian Sefton-Green, she followed a class of London teenagers for a year to find out more about how they are, or in some cases are not, connecting online. The book ...more

Angharad Rudkin, child clinical psychologist at the University of Southampton, examines the challenges facing parents in how to determine what degree of screen time is harmful or beneficial for their children. Her piece follows a special workshop¹ convened by the Media Policy Project and Parenting for a Digital Future on ‘Families and “screen-time”: challenges of ...more

Mark Griffiths reflects on the realities, implications and consequences of "screen time" in the context of gaming. He argues that it is not about the amount of screen use, but rather about its content and context. His piece follows a special workshop¹ convened by the Media Policy Project and Parenting for a Digital Future on ‘Families and ...more

Following a special workshop¹ convened by the Media Policy Project on ‘Families and “screen-time”: challenges of media self-regulation’ and the publication of a new policy brief about families and "screen time", authored by Alicia Blum-Ross and Sonia Livingstone, Madeleine de Cock Buning reflects on proposals by ERGA to develop Europe-wide categorisations for potentially harmful ...more

Jen Persson discusses the background and implications of the Department for Education's policy and practice on collecting and sharing the personal data of 20 million children in the National Pupil Database. There has been no public or parliamentary consultation on recently proposed changes to collect pupils' country of birth and other personal data, and this ...more

Alice Webb, Director of BBC Children’s and BBC North, explores some of the challenges facing the BBC as it considers how to deliver exciting and diverse content for children whilst adapting to technological advances. This post coincides with the publication of a new policy brief about families and ‘screen time’,¹ authored by Alicia Blum-Ross and ...more

Alicia Blum-Ross and Sonia Livingstone explore current attitudes and advice to parents in relation to children and ‘screen time’ and asks whether it is still fit for purpose in today’s world. This blog coincides with a new Media Policy Project policy brief on the subject, authored by Alicia Blum-Ross and Sonia Livingstone. Alicia is a researcher ...more

Alicia Blum-Ross tells us how she, as a researcher and mum, keeps up with debates on parenting and technology. She listens to podcasts on her daily commute and she shares some of her favourite ones. Alicia is a researcher at the LSE’s Department of Media and Communications. She is interested in youth media production and is ...more

How can we protect our children from the new digital social situations that they increasingly find themselves in? Alex Harvey points out the problems with setting controls for age-appropriate content. Alex is the content manager for Yoti, a digital identity system. Interested in what technology will create in the future, ...more

If we were rating music videos from the 80s, would Boy George’s be considered too subversive? The scantily clad women on Addicted to Love not for our children’s eyes? Or should common sense prevail? Rafal Zaborowski is an LSE Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications. He is interested ...more

It used to be ‘Big Brother is watching you’, and we worried about CCTV, but today’s children are being watched in their ‘real’ lives as in their virtual lives. So what right do they have to privacy? Wendy M. Grossman takes a closer look at this issue, with some startling findings. Wendy writes ...more

Sonia Livingstone takes a closer look at increasing concerns around young people's mental health and the implication that the internet is at fault. She argues that there is not enough research evidence to support this and many other causes for children's problems are being ignored. Sonia is Professor of Social Psychology at LSE’s Department ...more

Nine anthropologists from University College London simultaneously spent 15 months in Brazil, Italy, India, China, Trinidad, Turkey, England and Chile to study how people around the world use social media. Alicia Blum-Ross takes a closer look at the Why We Post project and finds that it demonstrates that what young people do online has ...more

Guest blogger Wendy M. Grossman finds that it’s hard for parents and teachers to guide children to avoid bullying (online and off) when so many adults behave so visibly so badly. She takes a closer looks at bad behaviour online, and how to avoid ‘feeding’ the trolls while maintaining ‘freedom of speech’. ...more

Credit: G. Knight, CC BY 2.0
Parents are worried about their children’s online privacy, but what are their options? Filtering content, invasive protection measures, or turning the internet off? Today is Safer Internet Day and Sonia Livingstone takes a closer look at children's exposure to online hate. Sonia is Professor of Social ...more

Credit: V. Efx, CC BY 2.0
Since launching in March, this blog has surpassed our expectations, with guest contributors from around the world and posts from our team giving you wrap-ups of the latest news, research and advice about parenting, children and technology. In just eight short months we’ve grown to multiple thousands of readers each week, so this is our ...more